Juxtapoz Magazine – Waterman: Coloring the Stranger: Jiyoun Lee-Lodge @ Granary Arts

Waterman: Coloring the Stranger explores the adaptation of a stranger in a new put. Jiyoun Lee-Lodge commenced this series as a journal-like notation when she moved from New York to Utah, and struggled to settle in. The persona of Waterman functions as a stand-in for both of those own and common expertise even though referencing pop culture, and themes of alienation and belonging. Lee-Lodge commenced this multi-year series by inquiring: “If I mimic what an ideal everyday living looks like in a new position, will I blend in perfectly?”

She illustrates herself as shifting h2o that repels, absorbs, displays – a determine having difficulties to locate a place inside of its ecosystem. The tender aspen backgrounds reflect her notions of “a far better life” in Utah, traced in a sensitive thin line as although it might dissolve into the scene when the viewer loses focus.

Influenced by Edward Hopper’s is effective, Lee-Lodge ongoing to investigate displacement, stress and anxiety, and isolation in the course of the pandemic. She was confined to her house, suffering from absolute solitude and loneliness in a area meant to present comfort. She mediated her entry to the outside the house entire world via a display – a electronic window – that acted as the two a implies of relationship and a source of alienation. A window that opens to surplus: ideas, facts, the deluge of emojis, and the exhausting cacophony of what Bo Burham phone calls “just about anything and everything all of the time.”

Lee-Lodge navigates alienation brought on by the pursuit of an best existence. In the film “Pleasantville” the tale starts in black-and-white, reflecting a perfect, perfect, and emotionless globe. As the primary character opens them selves to sensation, the world turns to coloration little by tiny. Lee-Lodge draws a parallel involving her course of action of “coloring” the Waterman to an acceptance and transcendence of her hope for lively and open conversation among the men and women, just like the movie. 

Curated by Amy Jorgensen at Granary Arts
Works Available through Contemporary West.